Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of fighting. Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.
—Rumi
“It is not unusual to find oneself drenched to the bone while walking in the early morning mists of Waipio Valley in Hawai‘i or the Ofafa Valley in Africa,” writes Gavin Harrison. “For me the adventure of Awakening has been mostly like that—a gradual soaking, with intermittent bolts of clarity, just like lightning piercing the depths of an African thunderstorm.”
Harrison is the author of In the Lap of the Buddha and recently published a new book, Petals and Blood: Stories, Dharma & Poems of Ecstasy, Awakening & Annihilation where the poems below first appeared. For Harrison, “Awakening is a death in life, and a returning. Gone is the illusion of who and what I previously thought myself to be. The significance of the dream world I cherished has evaporated. Today I know that I am limitlessly larger than the smallness I once lived. At last I have returned to the innocence of my magical garden, seasoned and aged by the passage of time.”
A long time supporter and friend of the Men’s Resource Center (MRC), where Voice Male began as a newsletter in 1983, Gavin was a recipient of the MRC’s “Challenge for Change Award” in 1998 when he lived in western Massachusetts.
OCCUPY YOUR HEART
Raise a fist of freedom to the sky.Touch the ground as the Buddha did. Seize your birthright. Let the occupation begin. Occupy your heart Occupy your indignation Occupy your willingness Be true to your heart’s Lift your voice to the sky Occupy an honesty to this moment, Emancipate your Love |
And may this occupation be the one that ends all occupations, forever.Remember the Big Bang, that great miracle of creation? Something from nothing? You are this moment’s expression Occupy the force of nature And if anyone This is where |
Raise your fist.
Open. Grab the sky. Touch the ground. Seize your birthright. Unfurl great wings. Occupy all streets everywhere |
HOSTILE TAKEOVER
I am checking in, My Beloved. We are in agreement that between us there will be no secrets, ever?Good! Well, here’s the thing. At the moment I am bewildered, unhappy This Homecoming Humbling. Relentless. A humiliation. Are You a nasty response A Holy Slap in the face, |
when I’m down upon my bloody kneesIn Deuteronomy I have read that You are a jealous, angry and unforgiving God. It certainly feels that way right now. However, I’ll take a breath. Calm down. Oh my God! I’m getting a taste of what Finally! You are unforgiving Angry with all that obscures |
Jealous of all that separates me from You!
Wow! I have to be careful what I pray for. You are no small potatoes! |
Gavin Harrison is the author of In the Lap of the Buddha (Shambhala Publications) and a recipient of the Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award presented by H. H. the Dalai Lama for “kindness and quiet dedication to others.” Born in South Africa, he lives on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. He is a USA fundraiser for the Woza Moya Project supporting AIDS orphans in KwaZulu, South Africa.
Proceeds from the sale of Petals and Blood benefit the Woza Moya Project, (funding through gavinharrison.net), and Group of Hope, a prisoner-initiated program for orphaned children in South Africa (groupofhope.co.za and mothersforall.org). Learn more about Harrison’s work at gavinharrison.net and petalsandblood.com.